A 22-member delegation from the Joint Command Staff and College Course (JCSC), UAE, led by Lieutenant Colonel Saif Rashed Khalifa Al Mesafri and accompanied by Lieutenant Colonel Faraj Aida Helal Al Mazrouei, Deputy Defence Attache, Embassy of UAE, New Delhi visited Kochi from March 15-18, 2018. The Head of the Delegation called on Rear Admiral RJ Nadkarni, Chief of Staff (CoS), Southern Naval Command on March 16, 2018, and held discussions on subjects of mutual interest, including training and naval cooperation between the two countries. On completion, crests and mementos were exchanged between the delegation and the CoS.

The officers of the UAE delegation visited training units at SNC such as the Navigation and Direction School, Anti-Submarine Warfare School, Water Survival Training Facility (WSTF) and Flight & Tactical Simulator (FATS) where they were given a demonstration on the training simulators available. The delegation also visited places of cultural interest during their stay at Kochi.

India traditionally has enjoyed warm relations with UAE due to shared historical and cultural links, going back thousands of years. People-to-people contact and trade in clothes and spices from India, for dates and pearls from the Gulf region have existed for centuries. Sharjah and Dubai have been the main hubs for trade with ports along the West Coast of India and the Malabar region in particular. In the recent past, India-UAE relations have witnessed even more professional interaction and defence cooperation, which has been fostered through regular visits of high level delegation, training exchanges as well as exchange of visits by naval ships to each other's ports.